Vanhanen is number one for many

As the Finnish Parliamentary elections are drawing closer the date being 18.2.2007, a new poll by Suomen Gallup(Finland's Gallup) and the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat shows that about half of Finnish voters want to see Matti Vanhanen (Central Party) to carry on as the Prime Minister.

It seems that Vanhanen hasn't suffered any decrease in public's confidence in him despite the media circus around the revealing book of his former girfriend Susan Kuronen following the couple's very public break- up.

Support for the leaders of both the Social Democratic and National Coalition Parties on the other hand has- according to the poll- stayed the same. The poll actually showed a slight drop in the support for both Eero Heinaluoma (SDP) and Jyrki Katainen (NCP) but this was due to a marginal error in the poll.

Meanwhile, the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (COFTU) started an advertising campaign to boost the volume of votes from its members. The adverts present a posh- looking man and a text saying: "Use your power or he does it for you- vote!" (Fi) .

Jyrki Katainen (NCP) has claimed that the campaign gives out a false idea (Fi) of people's relationships within the Finnish society, and deliberately seeks to create feelings of inequality.

While Jyrki Katainen's speculations of the campaign are exaggerated (I don't think that these adverts will have quite the impact he presumes as I find that they are rather humorous- although they don't demonstrate a very intelligent sense of humour), in all fairness it has to be said that the adverts seem somewhat out-dated and silly.